Rumor that Jason Smith failed to qualify and will be going to prep school. So that could leaves us with only 4 QB's competing for the starting job this fall. Rumor is Smith plans to join us by January next year.

ATLtigerfan wrote:
It is not a rumor. He is going to fork union to take 2 classes w/4 attempts at test taking plus play football. Plans to re-sign and enroll for spring semester.

Hate to break it to you but he was never going to be in the QB race...............well maybe wildcat stuff but that is it.

You may be right about JS never being a QB threat here ATL but you never know. Nick Marshall was a DB at Georgia and he could be our starting QB this Fall. Stranger things have happened and JS is a super athlete.

I hear ya TT, I just never really thought he was going to be a serious contender(via design by the coaches). Perhaps I am wrong but personally I felt the coaches were going to give him a shot at QB because they said they would but it was going to be one of those situations where they showed him his future is at WR in terms of making it to the next level. Plus the wildcat QB stuff.

It's a no lose situation for the coaches because there is only upside in the qb battle. If he showed out and won the job, it's a bonus they weren't counting on(imo).

Here's a clip of our starting QB for 2013. He has got an insane arm. I hope he can read defenses and play at SEC level speed & is a leader. We will be the surprise team in the west if he can get it done.

yes it is, and yes he did. I noticed the same thing. had he thrown a bit shorter or sooner & the receiver not had to come back to the ball, maybe would have hit him right in stride and have been 6 points easy peasy.

ATLtigerfan wrote:
I hear ya TT, I just never really thought he was going to be a serious contender(via design by the coaches). Perhaps I am wrong but personally I felt the coaches were going to give him a shot at QB because they said they would but it was going to be one of those situations where they showed him his future is at WR in terms of making it to the next level. Plus the wildcat QB stuff.

It's a no lose situation for the coaches because there is only upside in the qb battle. If he showed out and won the job, it's a bonus they weren't counting on(imo).

Here's a clip of our starting QB for 2013. He has got an insane arm. I hope he can read defenses and play at SEC level speed & is a leader. We will be the surprise team in the west if he can get it done.

Chizik criticized the talent Tuberville left behind when he took over as HC. "There was a lot of talent when i left here after '04" he said. Chizik struck gold in 2010 with a phenomenal JUCO QB and a group of seniors who remembered what they were taught from the Tuberville regime.

Chizik brought excitement back to Auburn with that NC and a series of outstanding recruiting classes "On Paper." Very few of the players that Chizik recruited here has done anything in terms of production on the football field. We are counting on a bunch of unknowns to revive our football program in only a few short months. That is the length of time our new coaching staff has been in place.

We have to be the most hungry and most desperate fans in the SEC. We're hoping for "Lightning in a Bottle" this season. Some of us are putting our hopes in a true freshmen QB to rebound us from a 3-9 season. That was our worst season in some 60 years.

What a fickle group of fans we are........myself included. What our in-state rivals are doing is making this uphill battle that much harder.

"What a fickle group of fans we are........myself included. What our in-state rivals are doing is making this uphill battle that much harder."

The difference between Auburn and Assbammer is that a few years ago, when they were in the situation we were/are in, they did their homework, went out and spent the money to get the best possible coach they could, period. Did the two stooges do the same? Time will tell, I guess......but I honestly feel like Auburn will not regain its rightful place among college football's elite as long as tweedle dee and tweedle dumb are running the university and the athletic department.

THE UNITED STATES HAS CEASED TO EXIST AS WE KNEW IT. "1984" IS HERE!

If you don't understand what this flag is trying to warn you of, stay your a$$ home on election day!

TT, you realize that clip is NM not JJ, and last I checked, NM is no true freshman. He is a 2 year solution unless he just kills it this season and gets drafted. I'll take dealing with that problem over the one we've had the last couple of years in the QB department.

With JJ on board and the QBs they are pursuing in the '14 and '15 classes, I like where our QB development pipeline is headed(for the first time in a very long time I might add). NM is the bridge gap to give the '13 & '14 class QBs time to develop.

At this point I've written KF off, but if he comes around it's just a bonus. Unless NM is a mental bust or doesn't fit in, I don't see how he doesn't take the starting gig. The 'problem' I potentially see with him is the exact opposite of KF. Coaches will have to teach NM to reign in his penchant for being aggressive and trying to make plays. Rather be working on solving that problem than the alternative.

NM should be awesome in this offense. It was built for his talent. His ability to tuck it and take off combined with that insane arm strength he has on the run should put a lot of pressure on defenses.

Yeah i know the clip was on Marshall, and i agree that we must find a QB for our offense to be successful, but we are not going to find another Cam Newton anytime soon. In order for Auburn to return to championship form, we need playmakers at every level. We need to play defense this time around. There is not another QB currently in college football who can do what Cam did. All the pieces came together in 2010. We had a veteran team with incredible leadership and Cam was the missing part.

Who said anything about finding another Cam? At this point the fanbase would be thrilled to find a QB that is at least serviceable instead of a liability. Did any of our QBs last year even throw for over a 100 yards against a worthwhile opponent?

At least when I watch NM on juco film, I see a gamer that has that aggressive, want to win instinct, and possesses the physical tools to do it. JW is a 'gamer' but he doesn't have the tools. KF has the tools but that appears to be it. At this point imo NM is the only answer that can produce results this year. We've got to find something to kick start us & the Gus era.

Agreed on defense. Not only do we need to play defense, we need to find our way back to some real AU defense. I don't think we've seen any since before Tubs left. Makes what AU accomplished in 2010 even more impressive, considering there was something not right about our defense.

Makes me wonder if in 2010 Chiz was changing defensive gameplans on Roof mid-week the way he was last year.

You are correct. We do need something to jump start the Gus Malzahn era. His offense requires a QB to put up big numbers. Gus may not need a Cam Newton but he do need for his QB to be highly productive. His QB just can't be a game manager because our team is not blessed with a lot of proven offensive talent. The HUNH requires for the QB to make quick and decisive decisions. In other words, he must be another coach on the field as Gus has said many times. That is the main reason why Malzahn's offense has been highly productive with seasoned QBs and very average without them. Gus loves to run the ball but good QB play is the key to his offense.

Auburn is no longer the Auburn of the past that relies on a strong running game, a stout defense, and good special teams.

I believe JW could be a good field general if all that was required of him is to manage the team, but in this offense he needs to be a 3,000 yards plus guy and i don't think he has the skill set to do that. I also don't believe that JW or KF have the skill set to make the supporting cast better. We will just have to wait and see can Nick Marshall do that or can Jeremy Johnson do that in the future.

Gus Malzahn has had onlyone season where his offense put up "average" numbers. That was 2011. The rest of his offenses have put up phenomenal numbers. Malzahn didn't get to run the offense the way he wanted in 2011 due to Chizik. Malzahn did the right thing and left Chizik to his own fate. Seems to have worked out quite well for Gus.

As far as needing to be a 3000 yards plus guy at QB, even Cam Newton threw for less than 3,000.

And guess what else? We actually now are developing a veteran team. This year we move from young and inexperienced to somewhat young but experienced. Similar parallel to 2009. On the current depth chart from Rivals.

Aside from the loss of the 4 seniors, mostly on the Dline, we are setting ourselves up for an NC run in 2014. Just like we bounced back from a disasterous 2008 season we can rebound to prominence in two years.

Nick Marshall definitely has the tools and really has the most experience of the QBs we have to choose from. My biggest concern is leadership ability, coachability. How quickly can he learn the playbook, will he work well with the coaches and demonstrate leadership to the team? Is he a guy that can quickly use the talents of his teammates around him?

Cam also ran for almost 1,500 yards and he had 51 total offensive TDs. In 2011 Gus did not have a seasoned QB. GM's QBs at Tulsa and Arky State were seasoned QBs that put up record numbers for their schools.

In my lifetime, Auburn has only 4 QBs that could carry a team: Pat Sullivan, Dameyune Craig, Jason Campbell during stretches in 2004, and Cam Newton. Chris Todd set records under Malzahn at Auburn but our W/L record was only 8-5. I believe we all expect better W/L records this time around.

I agree. We are developing a veteran team. Most of them haven't done much productively their entire careers. Time will tell if Malzahn can put a product on the field that will make most of Auburn fans happy.

I believe most on this board will be happy 6 months from now. Sure, there will be some that whine that we didn't beat Bama by 4 or 5 touchdowns and that we took our foot off the gas in the 2nd half. But such is life.

I am thinking we will have a team with something like the success of 2009, with maybe a better offense and not quite as good defense. Preseason, few gave us a chance but by the end of the season, we were one tiny break away from knocking off UAT. It was fun to watch what we did that year with Chris Todd at QB. Todd knew what to do as QB in Malzahn's offense but didn't have the legs to do it all. He could throw accurately but only had an average arm. He could run the offense but didn't have the legs to run a QB keeper, improvise or avoid the rush. For 2013 we may end up with a very potent offense that causes lots of problems for opposing defensive coordinators. On the defensive side, I am not so optimistic that we will be as good as 2009 or 2010. Overall player maturity level will hold us back on defense.

I hope the defense isn't as bad as what Roof put on the field in 2009.

In 2009 the offense finished the season ranked 2nd in the SEC and 16th in the nation (with just under 432 yards per game) while the defense struggled with depth issues and finished 68th in the nation and 2nd worst in the SEC.

myxtplkn wrote:I hope the defense isn't as bad as what Roof put on the field in 2009.

In 2009 the offense finished the season ranked 2nd in the SEC and 16th in the nation (with just under 432 yards per game) while the defense struggled with depth issues and finished 68th in the nation and 2nd worst in the SEC.

Well, in 2009 we had a quality offensive line, a real solid tailback, descent receivers and a genius calling the plays. On defense we had some disruptive players who did some great things when they had to, despite the coaching.